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American Truck Simulator
American Truck Simulator (ATS) is a 2016 business and vehicle simulation game developed by the Czech company SCS Software and is the parallel video game sequel to Euro Truck Simulator 2, spiritual successor of 18 Wheels of Steel. It was first announced as being in development in September 20131 and unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 (E3 2015). The game was released on 2 February 2016.2 Gameplay American Truck Simulator is a truck driving simulator with business management elements. In the game, players drive trailer-hooked trucks and deliver loads to a designated location in order to be compensated with money and experience points. The payload must be delivered to the destination speedily within a given amount of time, and with the least amount of damage to the goods as possible, in order to net the most money and experience points possible. In-game money, after being earned, can be used to purchase more trucks and associated aesthetic, mechanical, and structural upgrades, purchase fuel and repairs for those trucks, take out and repay loans from a bank, as well as hire drivers and purchase garages to house and base them in. The amount of money and experience points earned is commensurate on the length of the delivery in distance traveled as well as the type of goods being transported. When delivering goods, players can use their own personally-purchased truck or use one provided by an in-game company. When delivering goods using a fleet-provided truck, repairs and other costs are paid for by the company rather than out of the player's in-game fund pool. Experience points can be accumulated and used to obtain perks, which improve the player's driving ability and what kinds of payloads they can deliver, such as chemicals and explosives, which net a bigger reward when completed successfully. In addition to driving and delivering goods, the player can also manage a trucking business with hired drivers and owned properties. Hired drivers will perform deliveries on their own, netting the player money. The longer the drivers are hired, the more skillful they will become, thus increasing the amount of money they earn from each delivery. The player can train each driver to focus on a specific area of their driving that can be improved upon. Unlike in Euro Truck Simulator 2, the game features weigh stations, where players must stop at a designated weight station in order to determine the weight of the cargo before proceeding through (though the game will sometimes allow them to bypass the station but avoiding it deliberately will result in receiving a fine). The game started off at launch with the U.S. states of California and Nevada, and expanded from there, with Arizona being added in June 2016 as a major update. The U.S. states of New Mexico and Oregon have been made available, as paid DLC, in November 2017, and October 2018, respectively. Washington (state) was released on June 11th, 2019. Utah, the latest state to be released, was announced on July 4th, 2019, and was released on November 7th, 2019. More U.S. states and potentially parts of Mexico or Canada are expected to be added by SCS Software in the future. Development SCS Software first announced the game on 6 September 2013.3 It was revealed at E3 in 2015.4 On 11 April 2014, SCS Software announced that there will be 100+ cities in the game once completed (not initially), and SCS released screenshots of the game. Truck brands included on American Truck Simulator so far are Kenworth, Peterbilt, Volvo, and International Trucks. More will follow; the only setback remains the licensing of trucks from their manufacturers. SCS plans to eventually include the entire contiguous United States, as long as the game continues to do well. On 26 January 2015, SCS Software published a 1-hour video to YouTube of footage from early alpha of the game. On 18 December 2015, SCS Software announced the official release date for American Truck Simulator, 3 February 2016, on their blog. The game was released 1 day earlier instead.5 On 23 June 2016, SCS Software announced that it will edit the size of the in-game environment to increase its size by 75%.6 On 20 July 2017, SCS announced the 1.28 update, jumping from 1.6 in order to reflect that American Truck Simulator shares features with Euro Truck Simulator 2. The game was released for PC-DVD on 14 December 2017.78 Trucks SCS Software confirmed in a blog post on 15 February 2016 that the Kenworth W900 has been launched and added to the game. SCS Software confirmed in a blog post that the Peterbilt 579 and the Kenworth T680 will ship with the sim on release day. They also confirmed the Peterbilt 389 on 3 November 2016.9 Two years later, SCS Software included the Volvo VNL into the game on 5 November 2018.10 Another three months later, the CEO of SCS Software confirmed that the International Lonestar would be coming to the game. The developer would love to include many more trucks, but has ruled out adding fictional trucks and the biggest obstacle for including real trucks remains securing licensing rights. The International LoneStar was released into the game on 12 December 2019. Setting The game is set in a condensed 1:20-scaled version of the western contiguous United States, expanded periodically by the developer through downloadable content. It currently features depictions of the western U.S. states of California, Nevada, Arizona, with New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah available as DLCs.11 The game features 92 visitable cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and many thousands of miles worth of in-game roads.11 Currently, the player may travel as far north as Belllingham, Washington, as far south as Nogales, Arizona, as far west as Eureka, California, and as far east as Hobbs, New Mexico, assuming the player has all the states available to them. SCS have stated that most future map expansions, if not all, will be at additional cost.11 The modding community for American Truck Simulator have also created their own map extensions. These extensions include cities in each state and even Mexico and Canada, though these maps are not dense as the base game nor as high quality.[citation needed] Reception American Truck Simulator has received mostly positive reviews from critics, scoring 76/100 on[Metacritic.17 James Cunningham of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4 out of 5 saying, "While a little more realism would make American Truck Simulator more fun, paradoxical as that may sound, there’s no escaping how fantastically playable it is."22 Laura Dale from Polygon rated the game a 8/10 saying, "As someone who sunk countless hours into Euro Truck Simulator 2, a fresh coat of paint, an unfamiliar set of sights and the challenge of driving on the wrong opposite side of the road left me confident that I'll be sinking just as many hours into American Truck Simulator."21 Andy Kelly of PC Gamer commended the game and noted that it shared the strengths and shortcomings of its predecessor due to the two games' similarities, though advised that it was not finished on launch and urged more cautious gamers to wait until it was more completed before purchasing the game.23 American Truck Simulator won Best technological solution at the 2016 Czech Game of the Year Awards, and was also nominated for Best Game, Best PC/Console Game, and Best Audio.24 |}